VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License.

Antigua Guatemala or Pattaya?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Antigua Guatemala for

  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Antigua Guatemala’s own page.

Choose Pattaya for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Pattaya’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Antigua Guatemala 6, Pattaya 66: Pattaya leads by 60 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, Pattaya 58: Pattaya leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, Pattaya 30: Antigua Guatemala leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, Pattaya 76: Pattaya leads by 42 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, Pattaya 40: Antigua Guatemala leads by 38 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, Pattaya 52: Antigua Guatemala leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, Pattaya 55: Pattaya leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, Pattaya 36: Antigua Guatemala leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, Pattaya 42: Antigua Guatemala leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, Pattaya 84: Pattaya leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala 22, Pattaya 30: Pattaya leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 42, Pattaya 58: Pattaya leads by 16 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antigua Guatemala and Pattaya.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Antigua Guatemala
47match

Wins on culture and sights and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Pattaya
Best match
52match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Antigua Guatemala in July

25 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
188 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Pattaya in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Antigua GuatemalaPattaya

Where the figures come from

Antigua Guatemala has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Pattaya's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Sattahip.

Pattaya has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Pattaya's sunshine is measured 86 km from the centre, at Bangna Agromet / Ban Khlong Samrong.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Antigua Guatemala: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Guatemala Aeropuertola Aurora (23.5 km from centre). Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaPattaya
Official languageSpanishThai
CurrencyQuetzal (GTQ)Baht (THB)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 110/120, ambulance 128, fire 123Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation1,582 m35 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaPattaya
City population59,091119,532
Museums within 10 km20
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Antigua Guatemala or Pattaya somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.